Still no saddle - 15 tried & £120 spent on fitters & trials :(

Oh no, I feel awful now! One for riding my horse in it, two for being so uneducated when it comes to fitting a saddle and three for trusting saddle fitters that assured me that it was a perfect fit :(
Just hope I haven't damaged my boys back - he's such a sweetie that he wouldn't make too much of a fuss about it being uncomfortable :(
 
Sandylou said:
OK so I've looked at the suggested saddles:-
NO GOs:-
Amerigo Vega - too expensive - unless I can find 2nd hand
Sollution saddles - too expensive - unless I can find 2nd hand
Andrea Hicks - too expensive - unless I can find 2nd hand

POSSIBLES:-
Duett saddles - Is there a UK fitter?
Fylde - but do they do GP/VSD?
Lavina Mitchell
Barnsby - Need to try
Thorowgood T4/T8 cob
Ideal Made to Measure - is there a fitter in Leicestershire
Black Country - are the trees super flat?
Wow - What's the price of these?
Kent & Masters - flat back? cob? compact? Anatomic? - need to try
Treeless - is there a treeless fitter in Leicestershire?
Bates/Momentum - do these do a cob/flat tree?

ponycobandhorse - I have arranged for them to come and measure up next week but am having second thoughts due to Ladyt25's xperience??
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Well personally I would never recommend them to anyone now after my experience. Yes, they came and fitted and came back when I queried the gullet width.

However, I explained my situation in great depth when I arranged the appointment - ie I could not ride or even really lunge the horse in the saddle as he had flipped out previously due to pain, so I was in a catch 22 as needed a saddle to fit but couldn't try it as such. It wasn't going to be a long re-backing process. He said that wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately when I explained later how the saddle wasn't right he essentially blamed me because he couldn't possibly measure/fit a saddle without being able to see the horse move!?!
I appreciate that BUT he was fully aware of that before coming and, IF that was the case he should have not agreed to come!
He is very keen to get your money but not keen to help should things not work out so I would be VERY careful!!
 
It might be worth investigating Kieffer saddles.

I bought mine for about £400 second hand on ebay and then had the saddler out to adjust.

Once you find a saddler who has a Kieffer bench, they will come out check the fit and if adjustments are needed they take a template of your horses back and then take the saddle away and do some infrared based voodoo and then bring the saddle back and hey presto it fits! All this costs about £100

I think it's the Kieffer Amsterdam that is aimed towards short back cob types.

In the UK Kieffer are based in Corby. I haven't called them but a friend said they were very helpful so might be worth a phone call to investigate? ?
 
Sandylou said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. Despite considering taking a credit card out I don't think I can justify spending over £2000 on a saddle......as much as my heart says yes, my head says no.
I haven't tried Fylde or Thorowgood cob yet so will look into those.
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We have just invested in Solution saddles for our horses (2 between 4 of them) and I can honestly say that they are worth the expense. My Draft horse has worn 4 different saddles in the 4 years that I've had her, as she has changed shape with less feed and correct riding. She went better than she has ever gone, at the initial Solution saddle fitting. Her movement is much freer. I would certainly recommend them.
 
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Just to answer op's query re Duett saddles - as far as I know there are no UK fitters unfortunately. I found a secondhand Duett(40cm tree) on ebay which I loved but felt was slightly too narrow so I sold it and bought the next wider size(42cm) new from US and it does what it says on the tin at a reasonable price.
 
The photos show a saddle that is too curvy by far, but front photos, and having the saddle girthed up, show much more than side on close ups with it just popped on :). Our website shows the correct photos, if you can post the "nekkid" photos as shown on our website I can let you know which or our models from the past might fit.

Fitting unbacked horses carries risk for both fitter and owner - occasionally I fit unbacked, with new saddles, where there is no other option. I can only warranty the fit to a certain extent as so much comes from seeing the saddle ridden, the effect of how the horse moves the saddle, how the rider sits. However, if you have kept the saddle immaculate then the fitter should help out if it doesn't work - we just had a case where an unbacked horse had a new saddle, went off and was backed and grew 1-2" behind. We were lucky enough to have a very lightly used saddle that worked perfectly and we swapped it, just the cost of a call out. But it isn't strictly speaking entirely the saddle fitter's fault if it doesn't work.

Ultimately though the fitter could give good customer service and help as much as possible, or get *****ty and not help at all. Reputation is everything.
 
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JulesRules said:
It might be worth investigating Kieffer saddles.

I bought mine for about £400 second hand on ebay and then had the saddler out to adjust.

Once you find a saddler who has a Kieffer bench, they will come out check the fit and if adjustments are needed they take a template of your horses back and then take the saddle away and do some infrared based voodoo and then bring the saddle back and hey presto it fits! All this costs about £100

I think it's the Kieffer Amsterdam that is aimed towards short back cob types.

In the UK Kieffer are based in Corby. I haven't called them but a friend said they were very helpful so might be worth a phone call to investigate? ?
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what you say is true as this was the only saddle at the time that fitted my boy and I brought mine from saddles direct mine was the Kieffer Muchen
 
sbloom said:
The photos show a saddle that is too curvy by far, but front photos, and having the saddle girthed up, show much more than side on close ups with it just popped on :). Our website shows the correct photos, if you can post the "nekkid" photos as shown on our website I can let you know which or our models from the past might fit.
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thanks - I'll get the photos uploaded later.
 
Slightly bemused by the suggestion several people have made that Working Hunter saddles don't have knee rolls - they most definitely do, although show saddles intended for flat classes generally don't.

My Highland has very broad shoulders, and WH saddles have always been what's fitted him best, although he has a VSD at the moment (which my sister likes but I honestly hate riding in, although it fits Mr H quite well). The whole point of WH saddles is that you can jump in them whilst not having anything covering the horse's shoulder, and they fulfil that admirably - if I wasn't trying to sort out a side-saddle I'd be on the lookout for another WH. It is a matter of personal preference, though: I much prefer a WH to something more forward-cut, but some people have trouble with keeping a secure lower leg over jumps in something straight-cut; so see if you can try some different styles.

As far as brands are concerned, we've had quite a good wide/extra-wide Dever WH saddle, and I know that Sankey are supposed to be very good in terms of both broad horses and custom saddles (if it comes to that).
 
The sport pony tree that we have made for a long time should work and is a lot flatter than the SC you posted photos of. I am more than happy to advise via pm which models have used it over the years, we certainly don't have any used available but you do see them.

As for WH - they vary. Some are more like VSD saddles and may have a similarly deep seat, some, like ours, are pretty much showing saddles "on steroids" as I call them - a slightly bigger knee roll and very slightly more forward flap, but still straight cut. I personally wouldn't want to jump in one (we're all different as already said) and, especially in the plaiteds, we are seeing more and more jump saddles. These are often flatter in the seat than a GP so don't swamp the horse, but you don't want a massively forward cut XC type saddle, more a neater close contact style. Equally a very flat seated GP is a good bet for WH and I fit many a longer legged or shorter-stirruped rider in one rather than a WH.

If a saddle is fitted well it should generally sit well back from the shoulder anyway and IMO most large shouldered wide horses should be able to be fitted with some kind of GP. Stability is all, which does often mean a flatter tree, and then the saddle should stay put.
 
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